Friday, November 21, 2008

My husband left the house at 8:30a.m. and didn't return until 11:45p.m. His company is at the Youth Specialties Convention here in Nashville until Sunday. So needless to say it was a long day. I had mine and Andon's day all scheduled out with school time here at home and plenty of play time. You know with only having one kid you are the playmate! :) But for some reason all throughout the day I felt like I was being attacked. I kept focusing on negative things and just crying and feeling so sad for myself. I even thought to make a list of all the things I am sad about or struggling with and then I told myself that I have so much to be thankful for as well so I better write that list too. I really wanted to write them down, get them out of my head and just give it to God. I'm not going to write out the things here but I will tell you that loneliness has been a big one. Missing my friends and family and Andon's little friends from home so much. I am making new friends here and I am so thankful that God quickly put them in my path. But I still ache inside, just typing this brings tears to my eyes.

Well this morning after I dropped Andon off at his Mom's Day Out I headed to the bookstore. When I was getting out of the car I saw a family of six getting out of their car. Something about them just caught my attention and felt very familiar. I really wanted to talk to the wife. But I thought how can I just walk over to them and tell them that, they will totally think I am crazy!

So I headed to the store and outside were these clearance baskets that I had to go through. As I am going through those baskets one of their kids asks if they can look so the parents stop with him. I thought here's your opportunity! So I asked them if they were on vacation, because it's 9:30 in the morning and they were all dressed up like they were going somewhere. They said they were traveling from Illinois to Florida! So quickly the wife and I started talking and I had told her that we just moved here three months ago from Florida. As I was talking to her I noticed their youngest daughter who they adopted from China had a cleft lip that had been repaired beautifully. I was so excited to tell her all about Andon and show her pictures of my precious boy. It was so nice to be able to tell her how the last few years have gone with surgeries and therapy and see God show himself in so many ways.

Then we started to talk about moving. I was having to fight back the tears (you know, don't want her to think I am crazy)... She said they have moved quite a bit in the last few years due to her husbands job and that it gets easier after the first couple of months. She said she realized that every time they moved God had something better for them where they were going. I told her I got that from God too but have yet to see it. We then got out my bible because she wanted to give me a verse to really soak in. She said she really loved the whole Chapter of Isiah 43. Which happens to be one of my favorites as well. Isiah 43:1 has meant a lot to me. That is the verse I have on the side of my blog. It says...

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine."

Really, that says's everything to me.

She wanted to read to me Isiah 43:18,19"Forget the former things; do not dwell in the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."

She said it's just learning to trust Him through this hard time.

And I do.

I just have those days where I have to tell Satan and tell him loud to get behind me! And yesterday I didn't. I was attacked until the time I fell asleep holding my precious little boy. (When Jared's not home at night I let him sleep in my bed :)).I actually fell asleep with him telling me "Mommy I just want to look at you" while rubbing my face. Does it get any better then that?! Sweet thing.

I am once again amazed by our Heavenly Father. He put me in the path of a family traveling from Illinois to Florida. They were just waiting for TJ Maxx to open to grab their daughter a coat and then getting on their way. Thank you so much God for allowing me to meet Melissa and her family even if it was just for 45 minutes in a book store.

We did exchange e-mail addresses, I just have a feeling we will always be in contact.:)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

I don't really know what happened but my camera is broken! I sat on the phone with the manufacturer trying to figure out what was wrong with it and no luck. I am so bummed because it's the only one I have. We are shipping it to Nikon today and they said it could be up to 3 weeks with shipping and everything!

Ever since I started blogging I see differant things we do as an opportunity to take pictures to post about. Now I feel like I have nothing to post about! :) I'm sure I do but I just like to add pictures.

We put up our little christmas tree! Yes, already. Andon and I got so excited about Christmas and wanted to decorate so when Jared came home he said "let's do it". So the apartment looks so cute and festive. We had to use Andon's little tree that we usually put in his bedroom for our living room so it wouldn't be too crowded. And of course we decorated his bedroom with lights and garland. It looks really fun. I'm sorry that I have no pictures to show.

And last night we decorated a cute little gingerbread house. Well it looks cuter on the box but ours is pretty good. And no pics of that either....

Well with no pictures i'm going to have to try and let my true writing talents shine through!! We'll see how many posts I have written before I get my camera back! If i've been gone for a while you'll know why! :)

Friday, November 14, 2008

A few of my friends from home have passed around this fun Tag. You have to write a list of 15 things you aren't afraid to admit. So here goes....

1. I have lived a great deal of my life held captive by fear. It comes and goes. But through my relationship with God I know that I am free in Him who gave His life for me.

2. There have been many times where I have found myself saying way too much in a conversation with people I don't know very well. By the time it's over I leave and just can't believe what I have said!! I get nervous and start spilling the beans!! Oh my! My stomach hurts right now thinking about it! :)

3. I recently tried Jared's cigar out of curiosity and liked it!

4. I am a very simple person. Not simple minded just a simple girl. Living in a world where I don't understand a lot that goes on out there.

5. I am Deeply In Love with my husband. I Thank God for him daily. I have been blessed with a man who loves God, and his family above anything else. He is selfless in so many ways. We are best friends and truly in love. I am thankful.

6. I truly believe that the three of us together as a family is just the sweetest and absolutely perfect.

7. But if God would allow or bless us with more children that would be perfect too!

8. I don't really like our dog. I know that's sad because i'm the one who wanted to get her for Andon for his 4th birthday. But her shedding and the responsibility of walking her and picking up the poop is disgusting!

9. I would love to live on a few acres, grow a HUGE garden, hang my clothes out on a clothes line and walk around bare-footed all the time. Just living simply!! See #4.

10. In the past few months I have learned to live more frugally. I always think i'm doing pretty good and then I look at Cassie's blog and realize I could be doing way better! :)

11. I miss our church from home terribly!! After church shopping for the last three months I am starting to think there isn't anything like it.

12. I don't know much about a lot of things but I know a lot about the important things. My relationship with God, my marriage and my son. And I pray that I continue to learn daily.

13. I could drive through Starbucks every day but my budget and husband won't allow me.

14. I am in denial about having a slight form of OCD. Ex: I will vacuum the carpets three times a day because of the dog! By the way, this one was my husband's idea! :)

15. The Lord profoundly changed our lives with the birth of our son. It hurled us into a deep and intimate relationship with Him. That we are so thankful for every day!

There you have it! Do what you will! :)

I am not sure really who has done this. I will go ahead and tag...... Sunday, Elizabeth and Cass. Have fun!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

This weekend Andon got to bring Corduroy home from school. When I picked him up Friday he came running out of music class grinning from ear to ear about this!

When we went for orientation to meet his teacher on the first day she told us how she let's every kid have a chance to take him home and we have been waiting ever since. Last week when another little boy's name was called Andon came walking out with tears in his eyes! Sweet little guy! I told him " your chance will be soon".. And his name was pulled next.

Here are a bunch of pictures from our weekend with Corduroy. He's going back to school tomorrow...

Saturday, November 8, 2008

I've added a little button on my sidebar from my friend Angie's blog. Well, we're not really friends yet... :) I've been in a couple bible studies with her and we keep saying we're going to get together for coffee and talk. So, I say we are friends! :)

She wrote a post yesterday with 7 prayers you can pray for your little ones throughout the day. The first one being when they wake up and then when they get dressed, while they are eating, when they go out of the house, while they are taking a bath, when they go to bed and while they are asleep.

I started this yesterday and told Andon what I was doing and when I was going to pray for him next. He was eating his breakfast just listening and then said "now I want to get in the bath"! Because he wanted to hear me pray for him in the bath... So sweet!

Just click on the 7x7 Pray button and you can see the the post she wrote. I wrote each prayer on an index card and just keep them with me all day.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Yesterday afternoon I brought cupcakes to Andon's class. When I got there Mrs. Evers had a table all set up and a birthday crown at Andon's chair. I brought Power Ranger plates and napkins because he specifically asked for them!? He asked for them the night before school and I didn't think anything of it. Well in the morning I told Jared I was going to run to Wal-Mart and grab some red plates and Jared said when he was getting him dressed Andon told him "Mommy's bringing Power Ranger plates to my school". So what was I supposed to do!? Cute little thing... :) Here is a pic of him in his class, waiting to eat his cupcake..And here is his teacher giving him his birthday spanking's. Not really, they were pretend spanking's. I don't think Andon knew what to do though we've never done that before. It was very cute...It was so fun to be able to go hang out in his class with him and his friends. They are an adorable little bunch of boys and girls and i'm so thankful that Andon is there.

On a side note. Please pray for me... The one and only sad thing about this time is that it's a reminder of how long we have been trying to get pregnant. When Andon turned 2 we decided we were ready to have another baby and obviously that has been 3 years now. It seems a little harder now because Andon keeps saying "I wish I had a brother". He carries around differant toys and say's they are his brother. Sweet boy. We've gone through infertility treatments and testing and the Dr's say there is no reason why we are not getting pregnant. So please pray for us. Anything can happen through the power of prayer. Thanks so much ~Jen

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

My sweet little one's birthday is today. I honestly can't believe he is already five! We spent an hour or so this morning watching videos from when he was a baby. I remember it like it was yesterday. He was the sweetest little baby with his big green eyes and head full of light brown hair. He was standing at my feet in one of the videos trying to say mama and kept saying yaya with this new little voice. And now he is so big in every way. My five year old is over half of my height! He'll definately be taller than me by ten or eleven!

Yesterday we spent the whole day celebrating his birthday because Daddy was home. I let Andon pick what he wanted for breakfast and i'm sure you guessed it, junk food! :) We went and got a donut at Dunkin Donut's. Here's a few pics from there. For lunch we went to Chuck E. Cheese. It was Andon's first time going there and of course he loved it! We all had so much fun there! Here are a few pics from that...Andon hit the jackpot on this game!!I scared all the kids away with my skills!! :) Yeah this picture, we'll have to do a seperate post about Jared and the honeypot game... :) too funny!!After dinner we went to Cold Stone Creamery and got some ice cream...Here's what we did to Andon's room while he was sleeping last night.. He loved waking up in his party room as he called it. :) And here he is playing with the gift that we got him today. He loves pirates!Tonight i'm making his favorite dinner. Baked chicken (he loves the skin), baked potatoes and corn on the cob. It also happens to be Jared's favorite too! :) And we picked up a Carvel Ice Cream cake that looks like a football. That's what he wanted.. :) I'll take pics of that later.

It has been so much fun celebrating the birth of my boy.

I am so thankful God blessed Jared and I with this precious little boy. My life changed forever November 4th 2003 at 8:15 a.m. I will never forget holding my brand new baby, looking at his little face and telling him "I will love you forever". Thank you Lord for this precious gift!

Monday, November 3, 2008

We picked him up this morning at the airport. Andon and I stayed pretty busy while he was gone but we missed him so much. Here are some pictures of Andon waiting outside the car for him..And as soon as he seen him exit the door he took off for him! It was so sweet to see Andon running as fast as he could to his daddy!! Jared took the day off to celebrate Andon's birthday!! We had so much fun celebrating all day! His birthday is tomorrow, I delivered him at 8:15 in the morning. Tomorrow i'm making his favorite dinner and he picked out a special cake that he wanted. Then we'll take cupcakes to his school on Wednesday. So, this is a 3 day celebration of Andon turning 5!! We don't mind though, he's our only one. :)

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Last night was Andon's first time going trick or treating. We were invited to go with Owen and Lucas in their great neighborhood. It was such a busy place with lots of kids out all dressed up. Andon was so cute at this. Every time he would go up to a house and say "trick or treat" or "happy halloween" they would try to put the candy in his bucket but he would make sure they just put it in his hand. I would make sure he said "thank you" and he would come running back to me to show me what they gave him. Grinning from ear to ear saying "look mom wasn't that so nice"! It was so fun! Here is Andon and Owen at one of the first houses...Here's our group all together getting their candy. The princess, pirate, batman, superman and thomas! :)This house just left a bunch of candy bowls out with a note to take two. So Andon is trying to decide what he wants. After trick or treating we all went back to some friends house to hang out and let the kids play. Here is a pic of the boys reading a treasure map. They had so much fun playing together. It was such a fun night hanging with new friends. The only thing missing was my sweet husband. He'll be home just in time to celebrate Andon's birthday!